Donald Trump and Brazil’s Bolsonaro movement have struggled to draw support from voters beyond their most committed followers, according to political scientist Franco Delle Donne, who studies authoritarianism and the far right. Their difficulty, he said, is not simply that they have governed poorly, but that they have lost some of their ability to appeal to less ideologically committed voters on the political margins.
In an interview with elDiario.es, Delle Donne described these voters as a varied group drawn to radical leaders for different reasons. Some feel that the welfare state no longer serves them; others are motivated by cultural opposition to feminism or LGBTQ+ rights, or by a desire for less state intervention. Their support can help such movements reach a majority, but it is not fixed.
Delle Donne said Trump’s failure to control inflation had made it harder for him to attract enough of these voters. In Brazil, he argued, Flávio Bolsonaro had not managed to persuade voters as his father had, with some feeling distant from his message. Delle Donne said the issue was less that voters had turned to Lula out of affection for him than that the Bolsonaro camp had become less able to mobilise support beyond its base.
That weakness could affect far-right movements more broadly, he said, although the voters on their periphery are volatile and can shift their support again. Their motivations, Delle Donne added, do not always fit neatly into the conventional left-right divide.
Delle Donne has recently published “Inside the Minds of… How 21st-Century Authoritarian Leaders Think (and Why They Win)” with El Orden Mundial. Discussing the broader conditions that allow authoritarian leaders to rise, he said democratic politics has increasingly been treated as a means of solving everyday problems, rather than as a system that safeguards rights and guarantees.
He argued that unmet expectations and a sense of unfairness have provided political opportunities for far-right parties. Such movements turn frustration into a story in which people are being denied what they deserve, often blaming migrants or minorities, and offer an ultraconservative, nativist response that frames social problems as security issues.
Delle Donne also warned that democratic institutions have not always been able to restrain leaders who weaken them from within. He said societies had placed too much faith in those institutions and underestimated the threat, describing a recurring pattern in which authoritarian advances are followed by pressure on the judiciary, constitutional changes, media control and the targeting of political opponents.
On Israel, Delle Donne said the continued support for parties associated with the government’s most radical ministers, alongside Benjamin Netanyahu remaining the largest political force despite losing seats, pointed to a divide between competing visions of the country. He also highlighted claims of electoral fraud by parties that lose, saying such episodes reflect the erosion of democratic legitimacy. He said it remains important to assess whether the country is undergoing radicalisation or polarisation.
Sources: elDiario.es.